Issue 91-September 2019

Educational Forum – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Risk Management California JPIA Receives Accreditation with Excellence The League of California Cities: Preserving Self Governance Workers’ Compensation Symposium and Liability Attorney Summit Offer Educational Opportunities York Purchased by Sedgwick City of La Cañada Flintridge Leverages Trail Immunity Where the Wildflowers Grow: The Super Bloom of

Educational Forum – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Risk Management

California JPIA Receives Accreditation with Excellence

The League of California Cities: Preserving Self Governance

Workers’ Compensation Symposium and Liability Attorney Summit Offer Educational Opportunities

York Purchased by Sedgwick

City of La Cañada Flintridge Leverages Trail Immunity

Where the Wildflowers Grow: The Super Bloom of Lake Elsinore 

Protect Your Agency Via Facility Use Agreements

News: Worthy

Educational Forum – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Risk Management

As the California JPIA’s Risk Management Educational Forum is fast approaching, it is only appropriate to be reminded of the key role our strategic partners play. Annually, the Forum’s success is significantly owed to the overwhelming support of those partners that contribute financially toward the Forum’s program and activities.

The Authority has always considered its business partners to be of strategic importance. This is not only true with respect to how they jointly work with members in managing risk. It applies as well regarding their partnership in helping us achieve a truly exceptional educational experience for our members.

We deeply appreciate our strategic partners and the part they play in supporting this opportunity for members. 

California Level
Alliant Insurance Services Inc.
AmWINS Insurance Brokerage of California, LLC
Brit Global Specialty USA
Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP
Carl Warren & Company
Markel Global Reinsurance
Sedgwick

 Catalina Level
Guy Carpenter
Kessel & Megrabyan
Kutak Rock LLP
Wesierski & Zurek, LLP 

El Capitan Level 
Declues, Burkett & Thompson, APC
Disability Access Consultants
Law Offices of Haith Bagnaschi, LLP
McCormick, Mitchell & Rasmussen, APC
Poms & Associates Risk Services
Safety National
Siegel, Moreno & Stettler, APC
Tripepi Smith
USI Insurance Services 

Sierra Level
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Arrowhead General Insurance Agency, Inc.
PFM Asset Management LLC
Protelligent, Inc.
Public Sector Excellence
Risk Placement Services, Insurance Brokers
RJN Investigations
Thompson Coe 

Mojave Level
Adamski Moroski Madden Cumberland & Green LLP
Aleshire & Wynder, LLP
Allied World
CD Photocopy Service, Inc.
Chubb
Collins Collins Muir + Stewart, LLP
Goldman, Magdalin & Krikes LLP
Harbor Health Systems
Law Offices of Barber & Bauermeister
Law Offices of S. Henslee Smith
PlaySafe, LLC
Pollak, Vida & Barer
Procter, Shyer & Winter, LLP
Wilmes LLC

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News: Worthy

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By Jeff Rush, Workers’ Compensation Program Manager

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Trail Immunity (CA Govt. Code Section 831.4) protects public entities from liability for injuries caused by a condition of a recreational trail. Applying to both paved and unpaved or natural trails, the immunity is intended to motivate municipalities to permit recreational use of their property.

“Trail Immunity allows local governments to plan and provide recreational trail opportunities for the benefit of their citizens while taking away the fear of being liable for accidents or injuries that might occur on a trail,” says La Cañada Flintridge City Manager Mark Alexander. “Without this immunity, municipalities may be fearful of providing such recreational opportunities, so the public policy reasons for having the immunity are important to helping improve the quality of life for residents.”

The city considers its trails to be one of the most significant assets of the community for both recreational and healthy living purposes, and invests a significant amount of resources in developing, preserving, promoting, and maintaining its network of trails, which also are linked with the Los Angeles County trails system.

“Because of the sheer number of trails that we and the county provide, the risk exposure to liability is high. Because of heavy usage as well as changing conditions, the risk of erosion, degradation, or alteration is also high,” continues Alexander. “Trail Immunity is important to us because it allows us to maintain and provide trails, both existing and new, without the fear of heightened liability should an accident or injury occur. We wouldn’t have this fantastic trail network without Trail Immunity.”

Many community events and programs, such as the annual Mayor’s Hike and the County Supervisor’s trail ride, take place on the trails. The city also hosts trail restoration events, that offer residents opportunities to work on trails by restoring sections that may have deteriorated or placing signage to remind users to stay on the trail, and works with local Eagle Scout and Gold Scout aspirants on projects that benefit their service goals, the trails, and the community at large. 

The city is supported in its efforts by the La Cañada Flintridge Trails Council, a nonprofit, volunteer organization that takes on the roles of informant, collaborator, and ambassador. First and foremost, the Trails Council serves as an informant of trail conditions, alerting staff to trail-related issues so that they may be resolved promptly. Real-time reporting typically is generated through the Trails Council’s “Suggest Trail Repair” interactive web-based form. Having an active reporting system in place allows the city to reduce the dangers or hazards to which users may be exposed. Staff also looks to the Trails Council for guidance on improvements, policy development, and usage protocols. Beyond the day-to-day maintenance needs, the Trails Council provides long term strategies to anticipate where the trails need improvement, where policies need to be developed to keep users safe, and where policies may be necessary on how the trails are being used. As ambassador of the trails, the Trails Council website provides the public an informative platform showcasing trail routes and keeps user groups informed of closures, events, and other issues. The Trails Council also maintains the official trails map.

During his 16-year tenure as city manager, Alexander has observed how technology has enabled users to become more connected and aware of the city’s trails. At the center of this awareness, he says, is an app developed by the Trails Council that allows users to not only pinpoint their exact location and more safely and accurately navigate the trails, but also directly report issues that they come across on their hikes.

The City of La Cañada Flintridge has been a member of the California JPIA since 1986. Alexander, who joined the city staff two years later in 1988, describes the Authority as a self-insurance pool of common-interest cities and public agencies working together to manage their risks and claims. But, he observes, the Authority is more than an insurance pool because its programs, conferences, trainings, and template policies help ensure that members are all practicing accepted best management efforts as they deal with risk and liability exposure.

“The Authority’s greatest value is its knowledge, experience, and expertise,” says Alexander. “The Authority has dealt with practically every type of liability out there and they have a successful track record. They have an excellent training program to impart lessons learned from prior circumstances and cases. They have an excellent panel of attorneys that are well experienced in how to successfully defend in litigation and protect municipalities and their officers. Their training and educational seminars are second-to-none in helping members understand what they could be doing to better manage risk and liability exposure.”

Photo Caption: Paddy Taber, Senior Management Analyst – Public Works, and City Manager Mark Alexander

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Re: Members

Where the Wildflowers Grow: The Super Bloom of Lake Elsinore

This spring, the City of Lake Elsinore experienced an extraordinary natural phenomenon: Extended drought conditions followed by record rainfall produced a massive bloom of California wildflowers known as the 2019 Super Bloom in Walker Canyon.

The once-in-a-lifetime Super Bloom blanketed Lake Elsinore mountainsides and canyons with an abundance of orange California poppies. Attracting up to 100,000 daily visitors from all over the world, the Super Bloom wonder demonstrated the extreme beauty of Lake Elsinore. “It was crazy,” said the city’s finance manager, Shannon Buckley. “Visitors came from all over the United States, as well as Europe and Asia. People were getting off the bus and showing us their passports from countries as far as China, Hong Kong, and Thailand. Even a few celebrities showed up.”

When the unplanned tourist attraction also generated public safety issues for the City of Lake Elsinore, the California JPIA was available to provide support. “The challenge was a large inundation of visitors in order to view the Super Bloom of wildflowers,” said the city’s designated Risk Manager, Alex Mellor. “This had a huge impact on the city, as well as local business and property owners, in the form of people trespassing, parking where they shouldn’t, getting into traffic accidents, and overestimating their physical ability to make the hike to view the wildflowers, trampling on the flowers.”

The city and its partners responded to this unplanned, natural phenomenon by putting public safety first. City, county, transportation, and public safety personnel worked together to create a unified approach to address the increasing public safety challenges related to the Super Bloom. This included increasing available resources and support, implementing additional traffic control measures, increased enforcement, expanded public notices, and the use of shuttle services to transport visitors to the trailhead where they could experience the Super Bloom.

The overall goal of these efforts was to ensure the safety of those visiting Walker Canyon while also reducing traffic impacts and safety concerns from residents. Buckley oversaw the entire operation, which began with the establishment of an Incident Command Post. Buckley designated staff to operate key positions throughout the process and to mitigate problems as they arose.

“We took steps to address the public safety issues, such as designating parking and walking areas, and developed a map for the residents to be able to get out of their homes,” said Buckley.

Although not without its challenges, the Super Bloom provided positive, worldwide visibility of the City of Lake Elsinore. With the help of the Authority and other public agencies, the city was able to manage the situation and mitigate some of the more severe issues.

“The first weekend,” said Buckley. “the Authority reached out and said, ‘How can we help?’ ‘Whatever you need, whatever resources that we can provide, please let us know.’ It was awesome.”

While it’s impossible to be fully prepared for unexpected events like the Super Bloom, practicing sound risk management and establishing strong relationships with organizations like the California JPIA can be critical to helping public agencies address unanticipated emergencies.

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Risk Solutions

Protect Your Agency Via Facility Use Agreements

By Maria Galvan, Risk Manager

Many members rent out facilities, including community centers, for external parties’ meetings, celebrations, recreational activities, and other events. If someone from the external party gets injured on the premises, the member can be held liable as the property owner. Potential liability can be minimized through a facility use agreement (FUA).  FUA’s should be executed any time a third-party uses a member’s facilities.

FUA’s outline the renter’s responsibilities, conditions, and rules of use for the facility. A FUA should include indemnity language in favor of the member. The indemnity language should require the facility user to release the member from liability for injuries to any person or persons, or damage to property arising at any time during and/or arising out of or in any way connected with the use or occupancy of the facility and adjoining property. Insurance requirements are also necessary. Without insurance, there is no guarantee that the facility user will be able to financially meet the indemnity obligations outlined in the agreement. The California JPIA recommends requiring insurance for all facility rentals. Many members require evidence of insurance for all facility rentals, while some members choose to only require insurance for rentals where there are a certain number in attendance (ex: 100+ attendees). Although the risk of loss for a smaller group meeting may not be considered, the potential for loss does exist. There are other members that make exceptions to insurance requirements for certain groups (ex: local non-profits). The California JPIA recommends consistency in FUA insurance requirements, to ensure that members do not encounter allegations of preferential treatment of certain groups over others.

A risk analysis should be conducted to determine appropriate coverage. At a minimum, members should require general liability insurance with limits of $1 million per occurrence/$2 million general aggregate, including an endorsement to the policy naming the member as an additional insured. Based on the risks associated with the facility rental, higher general liability limits or additional insurance coverage may be required. In order to verify coverage, it is necessary to obtain the evidence of insurance and additional insured endorsement prior to the facility rental date, otherwise members are exposing themselves to liability for the facility rental’s activities, which members may have little or no control over.

The Alliant Special Events Program is available for members to use and assist facility users with purchasing required insurance. Members administer the program, accept funds, issue certificates of insurance, and file quarterly reports with Alliant Insurance Services. General liability coverage with limits of $1,000,000 per occurrence/$2,000,000 general aggregate is available. Optional coverage available for an additional premium includes limit increases of $1,000,000/$3,000,000 or $2,000,000/$2,000,000, property damage coverage with limits of $50,000 or $100,000, and liquor liability. Certificates are issued with the user of the facility as the Named Insured and the member as Additional Insured. The program has paid several claims. An example is a claim of a guest at a wedding reception that slipped on a spilled a drink while on the dance floor. The claimant suffered a severe knee injury which required several surgeries. Medical bills totaled $125,000. For questions on the special events program, contact Penny Dewitt-Holdren at (949) 660-8142 or pdewitt@alliant.com. 

Members also enter into agreements to use the facilities of others. A few years ago, the primary liability program experienced a loss related to the use of a school district facility by a member. The incident occurred at an auditorium. The plaintiff was enrolled in the member’s preschool program and was at the location for a performance. While walking on a riser and set of stairs adjacent to a stage, the plaintiff fell and struck her head, allegedly sustaining a brain injury. The orchestra area below was not blocked off due to a missing piece of the stage. The member had used the school district auditorium for several years and never had a problem with children falling in the past or with the stage. Liability for the accident was apportioned between the member and school district. Initially, the school district vehemently opposed the apportionment. The member and school district had a FUA in place in the past, but it was not in effect during this incident. The lack of an agreement appears to have been an oversight. The member settlement for this loss was $350,000.

Members should ensure that written agreements are in place for all facility uses and that agreements do not lapse. Handshake or verbal agreements will not hold up in court, and disagreements over responsibility and coverage can erode previously long-standing relationships. A FUA template and Contractual Risk Transfer Manual are available on the California JPIA website. Members are advised to work with their legal counsel when drafting facility use agreements or signing another party’s agreement, in addition to consulting with their assigned risk manager.

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